The reboot of the Medal of Honor series was a modest success. Taking the series out of World War II, Danger Close and DICE worked to give the venerable first-person shooter an identity. It would take place in modern times during the war against terrorism, and instead of following the everyman soldier, the game would zero in on Tier 1 operators.

Medal of Honor was a gritty game about special operations forces. It would tell their stories in more realistic way, removed from the bombast and the Hollywood pyrotechnics of rivals like Call of Duty. It was a solid shooter that hit those marks but it also felt a bit cold.

In showing players what Tier 1 operators go through, they never had time for character development, drama or chemistry among the squad. The experience was a rather dry, neutral and straightforward.

The game will feature missions that are based on real-world events, giving the game a sense of veracity.

GETTING TO KNOW THEM: For the sequel, executive producer Greg Goodrich seemed to acknowledge this when I talked to him on a Thursday in early August. “We’re trying to tell a more personal story,” he said. “Breakdown those stereotypes of that barrel chested, knucle dragging, door kicker. Sure, it’s part of what they do. It’s a job they do, but they have lives. They’re concerned with stuff outside of work.”

That’s the reason Medal of Honor: Warfighter centers on Preacher, one of the protagonists from the previous game. He is having problems in his family life.

“In these communities, they’re deployed 300 days a year,” Goodrich said. “They’re training. Over the last decade, our nation has been in its longest conflict. Those sacrifices are being made at home. Kids are growing up not knowing their father.”

With Preacher, that means his wife has to raise his daughter alone while he’s out saving the world, and that puts pressure on their marriage. It gets so tense that she leaves him and moves back to her home in Spain. That also happens to be one of the places where a recent terrorist attack happened — the Madrid bombings in 2004. You can pretty much guess what happens.

“Preacher is going to fight for this,” Goodrich said. “We show how he fights for her.”

The visuals in Medal of Honor: Warfighter look top-notch.

A NEW ADDITION TO THE SQUAD: The other character of note is Stump, who is the newbie of the group that includes Voodoo and Mother. “He’s a former Marine turned Frog Man,” the executive producer said. “He’s Rabbits replacement in the unit.”

One thing I have to give Danger Close credit for is sticking to their guns and once again tackling real-life events. The last time they delved into this area, they sparked a minicontroversy by letting players take on the role of the Taliban in the multiplayer.

Goodrich said, “It’s a difficult thing to do to navigate those waters. This time, we paid close attention. We try to set the right tone.”

Players will tackle missions based on real-life events such as sniping Somali pirates.

PICK YOUR COUNTRY IN MULTIPLAYER: That’s probably one of the reasons that the multiplayer this time around focuses on competing special ops units from every country. The multiplayer pits British SAS, U.S. Navy SEALs, Canadian JTF-2, German KFK and six other special op services against each other.

Competing as these groups will give players a certain sense of pride with their countries. Special Forces groups do a similar real-life competition but of course they don’t use live ammo on each other like in the game. Each spec ops unit will have a different set of gear and perks that’s specific to them. Some units do share the same weapons but there are several customizations to differentiate it from each other. One of the bigger differences will come in the camo patterns and boflage.

Just like in real-life Tier 1 squads, there will be several roles for players to fulfill. Goodrich said there are six of them. It’s not just assault. In special operations, squads specialize in defined roles. He mentioned that there are snipers, heavy gunners, demolitions experts, analysts and spotters.

And with the Frostbite 2.0 engine, it sounds like all this will be done with an eye-bleeding amount of fidelity. I’m expecting an experience something similar or even better than Battlefield 3. Will Medal of Honor: Warfighter be that good? Players will find out when it’s released Oct. 23.